Sometimes I read the comments that are made on blogs that I’ve written and some nut inexplicably named _A_ actually made a very salient point about why current New York Governor David Paterson finds himself being assailed on all fronts.
In ignoring the logic of taking your cues from the current sitting President, Paterson looked to repay an old debt– real or imagined– and selected Clinton loyalist Kirsten Gillibrand to take the New York Senate seat vacated by Senator Hillary Clinton as opposed to following the White House mandate which decreed that he give the job to Caroline Kennedy.
This move ended up being a disaster of Jaz-O not signing with Roc-A-Fella proportions.
Not only has the little known Gillibrand done anything to suggest that she’ll be a good or even competent Senator, but after the Governor defied the President to appoint her, she was one of the first ones calling for the Governor’s resignation if the accusations of impropriety against him prove true!
Now, cutting the Governor all the slack that I’m capable of, what I imagine is that again, much like Jaz-O, Paterson’s becoming Governor before Obama became President led Paterson to believe that he did and forever would have one up on Mr. Obama.
Also like Jaz-O, who must have watched befuddled as former protege Jay-Z’s fame and success skyrocketed, Paterson must have found it nearly impossible to take orders from a guy who had just a few weeks before been a lowly Senator from Illinois.
And while i still don’t believe that any Black “leaders” including President Obama himself, had or have any right to suggest or request Governor Paterson resign for, in essence, breaking up a lover’s quarrel and watching a Yankee game with tickets that he ended up paying for, when President Obama asked the governor not to seek re-election because it was feared that Paterson would lose thereby weakening the Democratic Party, the question became did President Obama make that request while simultaneously offering Governor Paterson a job?
If President Obama did make Governor Paterson an ‘offer he couldn’t refuse‘ and Governor Paterson refused it, then David Paterson is totally brainless.
If the President simply asked that the Governor not seek re-election yet offered no other hustle through which the man could feed his family, then President Obama is totally heartless.
